The mysterious disappearance of comet hunter Rosetta spacecraft's lander, Philae is now solved, as the European Space Agency obtained new imagery of the long lost lander on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.
Philae lander lost contact two years ago with mission control due to a bumpy landing on the surface of the comet, with its location unknown as its battery died out, until now.
Since its disappearance in November 2014, mission engineers continuously searched for the lander and after a long awaited answer, Rosetta's onboard high resolution camera captured the doomed lander resting under a shadow of rocks, as its body was stuck between jagged comet terrain, as one leg is shooting upward. In this new, breakthrough discovery, Rosetta was just orbiting from a distance of 1.7 miles above the comet.
In this new imagery, Philae appears quite blurry however, the reason why it took so long to find the lander is due to its solar arrays that were unable to recharge as the lander went into hibernation.
This crucial image arrived just one month after Rosetta mission scientists ended the search for the doomed lander, as they terminate the first ever comet landing mission on September 30 while the comet orbits farther away from the sun, which means there will be fewer chances of collecting enough solar power for Philae to come back to life.
According to ESA's OSIRIS (Optical, Spectroscopic, and Infrared Remote Imaging System) camera team lead, Cecilia Tubiana, we are happy to see the final image of Philae with such amazing detail, after downlinking from Rosetta on Sunday.
Philae was released from its mothership on November 12, 2014 where the lander bounced off the surface of the comet several times. Two hours later, its camera's last image was a heavy shadow in an extremely rocky region, believed to be under a cliff.
After three days, its batteries ran out, as mission managers hoped that when the comet reaches its closest orbit to the sun, Philae can collect enough sunlight, wherever it may be on the comet, for its solar arrays to charge again. Two separate occasions last June and July 2015 proved this to be right, however it was a very brief signal.